Art Grants?

[FireShaman]

Does anyone know when art grants start being accepted?

[Bob]

A man must accept himself first, grasshopper.

[theCryptofishist]

See if you can find when they were accepted last (this) year (if they've taken it down on the main site, a little time and the search function will dig it up on eplaya) and add 11 to 13 months to get a rough idea.

[fbcota]

Usually around early February with grants being announced in March/April.

I don't want to be a downer but the grants are few and far between. So, submit your idea, and just be ready to find other ways to do it :).

Best of luck, doing art at BM is an amazing experience.

[toaster]

Usually around early February with grants being announced in March/April.

I don't want to be a downer but the grants are few and far between. So, submit your idea, and just be ready to find other ways to do it .

Best of luck, doing art at BM is an amazing experience.

Awesome advice... for sure. I plan on applying for one project this year too. But I am told they will only fund a portion instead of the whole enchilada.

Last year the JRS kept on about Kickstarter.Com which is good... they posted Kickstarter projects on the Burning Man web site which was exciting and cool.

However, Kickstarter only gives you the moolah ONLY if you get 100% funded to what you are asking for; which sucks.

BUT! Indiegogo.Com will give you the money as it comes in. The drawback is, they give you the money as it comes in. I'd rather get it all at the end even if I do not meet my budget.

But yes... around January they'll announce the process and deadlines start being laid out. Definitely Feb for the Art schtuff.

Good luck, too.

[theCryptofishist]

At least one of 2010's grantee's hired a grant writer.
I think another page is being turned in the event's history. I won't say if that's good or bad.

[robrob]

I won't say if that's good or bad.

out of curiosity, do you think Art Grants in general are a good thing or a bad thing?

[theCryptofishist]

I won't say if that's good or bad.

out of curiosity, do you think Art Grants in general are a good thing or a bad thing?

I don't know. They do make it possible for there to be big art or more big art or bigger art, and I've known grantees and people who assisted them. Not receiving a grant doesn't forbid your art. Certainly, I think the comped tickets are a good thing.
No one gets the entire thing paid for with a grant. I guess a good thing. It would be nice if there were an outside entity that was making grants, but that might bring us back to Borg Two.
So a mild "good thing."

[toaster]

I won't say if that's good or bad.

out of curiosity, do you think Art Grants in general are a good thing or a bad thing?

I am counting on some help this year with my largest project. If there are some drawbacks to it, like making an agreement with the devil, I am nto aware.

I will be posting on indiegogo.com this year instead of kickstarter for other projects or for fund raising objectives.

Are there any hidden drawbacks? Does the Granter get to say "change this"?

[toaster]

And I am still looking for info on the grant process as well as submitting for 2011.

I'll hit up Jonsey later... he's a cool dude. Maybe he'll know?

[theCryptofishist]

I won't say if that's good or bad.

out of curiosity, do you think Art Grants in general are a good thing or a bad thing?

I am counting on some help this year with my largest project. If there are some drawbacks to it, like making an agreement with the devil, I am nto aware.

I will be posting on indiegogo.com this year instead of kickstarter for other projects or for fund raising objectives.

Are there any hidden drawbacks? Does the Granter get to say "change this"?

Not that I'm aware of, I think they just give the money to someone else if they have that many problems with it.
So why not kickstarter? (I'm trying to get my mind around this whole fundraising thing.)

[Eric]

Don't be discouraged if you don't get the grant- the Bmorg makes some really bad choices. Find funding, and if using Kickstarter don't try to fund the whole piece at once, but break it down into "goals" of some sort. It'll be easier to get $500- $1000 funded a couple of times than $10k once. Special schwag for donations over certain levels ($20, $50, $100.....) is a good incentive.

"Bliss Dance" didn't get a grant, and it's arguably the most talked about piece of art from this year.

[Snow]

also keep in mind you don't get it all at once either (BM grant money). But rather in a couple of installments. There are some meetings you'll have to attend as well. Certainly far from a deal with the devil, the creativity and details are left to the artist, if they didn't like your idea they wouldn't have considered you in the first place.

[toaster]

out of curiosity, do you think Art Grants in general are a good thing or a bad thing?

I am counting on some help this year with my largest project. If there are some drawbacks to it, like making an agreement with the devil, I am nto aware.

I will be posting on indiegogo.com this year instead of kickstarter for other projects or for fund raising objectives.

Are there any hidden drawbacks? Does the Granter get to say "change this"?

Not that I'm aware of, I think they just give the money to someone else if they have that many problems with it.
So why not kickstarter? (I'm trying to get my mind around this whole fundraising thing.)

Well, with Kickstarter you get nothing if you do not meet your goal... plus I felt like I had to earn their approval before I could post my project.

On IndiGoGo they let you post your project and when someone pledges moolah you get it right away.

It's all or nothing versus a chance to fund at least part of it.

:)

[toaster]

Don't be discouraged if you don't get the grant- the Bmorg makes some really bad choices. Find funding, and if using Kickstarter don't try to fund the whole piece at once, but break it down into "goals" of some sort. It'll be easier to get $500- $1000 funded a couple of times than $10k once. Special schwag for donations over certain levels ($20, $50, $100.....) is a good incentive.

"Bliss Dance" didn't get a grant, and it's arguably the most talked about piece of art from this year.

You are so right. I tried fund raising for BM 2010 rather hap-hazzardly and ended up with mud in my face... but in the end I delivered by a miracle.

"Blliss Dance" ... heaven

[fbcota]

There is no reason that you can't try to get funding from both websites.

For the Pier we are attacking funding a variety of ways.

1. BORG grant. We are going to ask for about 10% of costs and hope for 30%. In reality I am planning for 0%. With my past projects I thought we had a chance and failed. And even though we have gotten great feedback from the Borg on past pieces I am not holding my breath (I am hoping that all the amazing feedback so far will help though)
2. Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. We are looking into these now. I am going to try to pull 30% from kickstarter. May adjust and try to get between 30-50% from these 2 sources.
3. Fundraising events. We are planning a silent auction, a big May theme party, a roller skating party, a couple intimate events, etc,... Hopefully we can get the other 30% or so from these.
4. Begging, selling and stealing (maybe not that last part). We are working on some shirts to built a bit of funds, more for attention. Begging everyone we know, at every party and every event for cash. We will have a jar that we just kinda always have with us.
5. Scavenging, donations and discounts. We have allot of wood that can be scavenged. If we find enough it could reduce our budget by 20%. A contractor discount on lumber is another 15%.
6. Out of pocket. Simple reality, you are going to pay for your art on your own. You can fund raise all you want. Be ready to fork up cash. Also, try to plan a way to complete your project with no additional funds at all. We are going to have a 3 tiered project, to reflect the amount of money we raised.

Good luck, and ask around to see how everyone else did it.

[Mister Jellyfish Mister]

I'm grateful to have received four grants from BMORG over the past five years and I don't know if the following has had much to do with it but it feels right to share it:

* Give them your BEST idea
* Start early, so when you submit by the deadline it's clear that you have been working on the concept for a long time
* Work really hard on the grant application and follow their instructions to the letter
* If you don't have a proven track record, start small
* Gather commitments from talented people with good BM track records
* Have good, clear graphic representations- try the free Google Sketchup programs for 3D renderings
* Find somebody who submits grants professionally to review your application and make suggestions
* Itemize your costs to the penny
* They want value-- ask yourself if YOU would pay what you are asking
* If it's big, they like to be able to see your piece from far away on the playa
* Write a song, make a video or start a silly promotion- do something to make your piece stand out in exciting ways
* Make it a compelling read, and have a non-burner proof read it for a real outsider's perspective. Would it make them want to go to Burning Man just to see it?

I enjoy the grant writing process because describing my concepts with such detail and focus helps me flesh out the ideas and imagine how participants will interact with them on the playa.

Be well and do strange things.

[Herring]

Thank you to everyone who's posted in this thread, it is immensely helpful. I'll definitely keep my expectations in check when I submit my grant.

Is it kosher to include the cost of equipment I need to buy? Like say I needed an industrial sewing machine, should I list that in my itemized costs? Materials are easy to figure out, but something that doesn't go into the finished piece seems to be in a grey area.

[Mister Jellyfish Mister]

Best of luck with your project and funding, Herring.

I have not chanced it with anything I would consider a "tool" to make art, but will put in consumables for that tool. In your case thread, needles, oil, etc. Have you looked into renting such a machine?

[jerroc]

Is there a place I can't check peoples art ideas and donate to the stuff I would like to see on the play?

[AntiM]

Now and then a "needs" thread surfaces in the Share Resources forum. I'll see if I can bump the old one.

[Dustdevil]

Do not include the cost of tools and machinery that you need to purchase for your project. As stated above, consumables only. Also make certain you show how much of the total amount needed you will raise. They are not going to fund your entire project.

[Mister Jellyfish Mister]

Best of luck to all artists who took the time to apply for grant funding. Do you find, as I do, that just the focus and labor of the process helps your ideas crystallize into a more executable process?

Jerroc: That's a good point. There's won't be a central listing of funded and registered art on BurningMan.com until later in the year. A few artists, myself included, put up websites for their projects early on with Paypal links on them. Here's mine: www.mutantvehicle.com/georgie_boy.htm

[dadara]

Best of luck to all artists who took the time to apply for grant funding. Do you find, as I do, that just the focus and labor of the process helps your ideas crystallize into a more executable process?

I definitely find the process of writing about a project something that helps you focus and define the right direction where it should be going. But trying to squeeze your text about the 'interactivity' or 'philosophy' of the project into exactly 2000 characters, only to find out when filling out the form that those 2000 characters were including spaces, didn't really help......

[fbcota]

I kinda find the whole grant writing process unbearable to be honest. This years grant was better then previous years as we had allot more eyes and ears involved. Which made for a grant that I actually enjoy reading. However it still felt like I wanted to rip my hair out.

Its a neccessary evil that must be done. Its a strong tool in the artists arsenal and forces allot of us to buckle down and join planet earth for a little bit. And it doesn't mean I have to like it :p.

Jelly, as you have received funding in the past, have you noticed if the ORG starts communicating with you earlier then they would when they say no to the grant (In other words, will they call in a week or 2 to discuss the project or do they just call everyone at the same time)?

[Mister Jellyfish Mister]

Thanks, Fbcota and Dadara. I hear you on the character limits. I'll admit they help me boil down and refine concepts which I sometimes think is good when I consider our "audience". Even the more open-minded on the playa still have their limits of what they can (or want to) take in upon the first encounter with our art, yet it's those that really want to look deeply into the work that I'll admit we are "targeting".

As for communication from BMORG, yes, it appears that I heard a couple of weeks earlier when my submission for a grant (Fluffer) was not selected for funding. I want to emphasize that they were really, really cool about it, and supportive of me doing my own fund raising to make the project happen anyways, though with less expensive materials. Your mileage may vary.

Speaking of fund raising, the crew and I have found a sweet spot with regards to the timing through the year on all the stuff we artsy types have to manage. This April 9th will be our 5th annual Yuri's Night celebration of human space flight which doubles as a fundraiser for our art installation. It's a good time of year to have an unofficial "compression" event, and well before other projects start competing for the same crowd. We've been narrowing down what works for us at the event, and the fact that we do it every year allows us to keep the steam up on the popularity and attendance.

Right now (February), with little to no cash in our coffers, we're building the things that cost little or nothing like light framing, writing software, and fabricating what we can with the materials we have on hand-- all of this with a scalable vision of what we will do both with and without grant funding.

I watched the video of the recent BMORG grant workshop held in San Francisco which inspired me to break the proposal and budget into two options with different price tags attached. It's sometimes hard for me as an artist to use the word "value" when it comes to what we do, but when your asking for money, I suppose it makes perfect sense from their perspective.

Cheerio.

[Workinonit]

So in the past have people how soon after march 1st can we expect to be notified? I would assume unless they are really on the fence on your project that you would have been notified by now if you were not receiving funding? Can anyone confirm this? Keeping my fingers crossed and anxiously awaiting notification!

[Mister Jellyfish Mister]

Last year I was contacted by them on March 1. Considering they have lots of phone calls to make, I'm sure they will want to spread them out. Good luck everybody!

[BaconHand]

The wait is killing my crew! Good luck everybody!

[Workinonit]

The wait is killing my credit card balance more than my crew ;)